HEADS ROLL AT SEATTLE TV STATION

The news director of the Fox TV affiliate in Seattle has resigned and an assignment manager has been fired after the station refused to air footage from a freelance cameraman showing police beating and yelling racial epithets at a Latino robbery suspect. After the footage was aired on a rival station, setting off a storm of controversy, news director Steve Kraycik sent a letter to the management of KCPQ-TV saying, “As the leader of this newsroom, I feel that under the circumstances it’s best for me to step aside.” In the news footage, two Seattle police officers can be seen stomping on the suspect’s head and body as one of them shouts: “You got me? I’m going to beat the [expletive] Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?” Following the airing of the footage on rival KIRO-TV, the Seattle branch of the NAACP accused KCPQ of playing “a substantial role in delaying and actively suppressing the release of the video in this case.” The cameraman, Jud Morris, told the Seattle Times , “I was told flat out … that this video will not go to air — we will not air it.” He said that he suspected that the station wanted to protect its relationship with the Seattle police department, which participates in a weekly program called Washington’s Most Wanted. It was later reported that the Latino man seen being beaten in the video was mistaken for a robbery suspect and was not charged.